Trump administration officials told lawmakers on Capitol Hill that the U.S. does not have legal justification to support launching strikes inside Venezuela.
Top officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and an official from the White House Office of Legal Counsel, attended the classified briefing on Wednesday where they told lawmakers the U.S. is not currently planning to launch a land strike inside Venezuela, according to CNN.
While the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) did draw up an opinion to justify the strikes against suspected drug boats in the Caribbean, it did not permit land strikes inside the South American country or other territories as President Donald Trump has been plotting, according to four sources cited in the report.
While officials have not completely ruled out taking action in the future, the plan appears sunk for now.
The revelations made during the briefing this week also cast doubt on what Trump said while taking reporters’ questions during a roundtable less than two weeks ago.
“Even the land is a concern because I told them that’s going to be next, you know the land is going to be next,” Trump declared.
In response to the report, the White House claimed Trump was given a mandate to “take on the cartels and stop the scourge of narcoterrorism from killing Americans.”
“The President continues to take actions consistent with his responsibility to protect Americans and pursuant to his constitutional authority,” a spokesperson said in a statement. “All actions comply fully with the law of armed conflict.”
The administration is reportedly seeking a separate legal opinion from the Justice Department to justify launching strikes against land targets without congressional authorization, but no decision to move forward with an attack inside Venezuela.
However, a U.S. official warned CNN that when it comes to policy “what is true one day may very well not be the next.”
But Trump recently expressed reservations about launching military action to oust Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to top aides, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday.
The U.S. has been building up its military presence in the Caribbean with the Ford Carrier Strike Group also being put under the authority of U.S. Southern Command as the Pentagon has intensified its strikes on suspected drug boats.
According to those in the briefing, lawmakers were told that the military is only moving further assets to the region to support counternarcotics operations and intelligence gathering.
Since early September, the U.S. military has carried out 16 strikes on 17 vessels in the Caribbean and Pacific killing at least 67 people.
Two survivors were also rescued after an attack last month and returned to their home countries rather than being prosecuted.
The move has raised questions over whether the administration does have evidence tying the targeted boats to drug trafficking. Officials have repeatedly insisted they do have intelligence to back their claims but have provided no proof.
On Thursday evening, the Senate will vote on legislation that would limit the president’s ability to launch attacks against Venezuela.
The bipartisan war powers resolution, led by Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine, would move to prevent a land attack on Venezuela without the administration receiving congressional authorization.
If passed in the Senate it would serve as another rebuke from members of Trump’s own party as some Republicans have asked for more information about the president’s military strikes targeting drug-smuggling. However, the bill is expected to have no chance of passing in the House or being signed by the president.
